Roosevelt Middle School
International Baccalaureate Magnet
Site Governance Team
November 10, 2009
Present: Debbie Christensen, Bobbe Abts, Matt Harvey, Carmen Garcia, Mindy Powers, Kavi Shankar, Lucinda Bernadino, Guillermo Moran, Nelson Cortes, Mary Lewis, Vicky Alt Klug, Fran Donovan, Arlene Spaniol, Allison Brown, Ryan Elliott, Dina Weiss, Greg Olmstead, Christopher Croom, Emma Ehrlich, Ken Marushige
Not In Attendance: Jennifer Jay, Shakerra Davis, Daniza Oviedo, Rafeal O’Campo, Kristy Beauchamp, Birk Zeunges
The meeting was called to order @ 2:15 pm.
1) Horizontal/Vertical Planning
a. IB visit:
i. 3 days of planning for disciplines to work together as a group.
ii. Science planned on Sunday. 6th grade language A met on Monday. Humanities met today. 7th & 8th Language B to meet Thursday.
iii. Math has to meet also.
iv. Ken is Working on a plan for P.E., technology, math, and 6th grade humanities to meet.
v. English/Language Arts is now called Language A. World Languages are now Language B.
vi. Working on flexibility for a release date or have meetings on off hours (weekends).
vii. Planning days should be built in to the schedule; heavy during Spring and check-up during the fall. Also release days or a combination thereof. Updating uniplans, curriculum, etc. We must have those protocols in place to maintain the IB program.
viii. Language A should meet before each unit to align IB with curriculum.
ix. Ken-What’s being done now: All files downloaded from district website, documents, templates, etc., Marishuge was able to post to website for staff access. Not publicly available, but good to have it on the website. Google Docs or Wikis would be nice. We could meet for all resources and have it all in one place for staff to assemble all resources.
x. What if there are questions? Talk to those who you work closely with. If you can’t figure it out, perhaps we can formalize a chain of command. All departments have an email group. We’re helping with the nuances by posting docs.
xi. Units are public access. Would we be opposed to share the IB units with parents? They are password protected. The interface is difficult. The reason they are protected is because they have quizzes and tests in them. They could be summarized. What’s currently there are not the everyday details. Marushige only downloaded the overviews. Maybe those could be made available.
xii. Sampling of projects could be made available for parents.
2) Master Schedule for 2010-2011
a. 6 periods with no food is a long minimum day.
i. Informal survey by Dr. Garcia. Most said they were ok, except those who had no breakfast. We wanted to reach 85% reduced, but food services might make an exception. Breakfast in the classroom is a possibility. What about a snack? Maybe we can extend the day. A breakfast bar as during testing? Many students don’t have time for breakfast. Would this be for everyday or only minimum days? ASB could survey the students. What about encouraging breakfast eating? Some kids just don’t eat breakfast. Teenagers are on a different schedule sometimes.
ii. If we are granted the 3% grace by food services that means all kids could ear for free (no codes necessary). Encouraging breakfast might be through making it fast and convenient. How about bringing breakfast to the first period classes?
iii. One school added extra 5 minutes for nutrition. We can’t shave 2 minutes off periods.
iv. Cut 2 minutes to obtain a 10-minute passing period for a nutrition period. The logistics is a nightmare.
v. Student’s opinion: Mr. Lockwood’s class, we don’t get through the lesson on minimum days. Cutting more time would make it harder.
vi. 6th graders are used to eating lunch at 10:40 am. It’s not about the morning. Around 11:00 am take them on a break. Those who bring their snack can go out to eat. It’s not breakfast in the classroom. No wiping tables. Just go outside to have a snack.
vii. Possibly leave it up to the teachers to allow a “snack time” later on in the day…making it a more informal process.
viii. Is it possible to distribute food in the morning and let them eat it at any point during the day? I think the problem is that kids are hungry during the day. It’s not so much the morning, but later in the day. Give them the food and the choice to eat it whenever they want.
b. 20 minutes advisory: We really need to push the IB stuff. We are all expected to teach IB concepts. If we had a 20 minute advisory only on Tuesdays we could cut down to 42 minutes per period. We could do the breakfast during the advisory. This would provide a place to do this.
i. We can’t have world language if this is cut. We either decide to petition the board for a different language program. We just can’t do it as it is now. The time isn’t enough. We are a high school credit program. What is their responsibility is to make up work for the short times we have (students). Every year the high school calls to complain about how we give language credits. Cutting instructional minutes is too much.
c. Teacher Prep (Master Schedule for Next Year)
i. A large concern of the IB panel was that we do not have department prep times imbedded into our schedule. Suggestion: Team humanities & language A by grade level and math & science by grade level for a weekly prep. Then have a team meeting (for all four core subjects) in lieu of one of the 1:30 mini-meetings each month.
ii. There are concerns with multiple schedule changes and how this looks for our school – the influx of 100 students this year through our already solidified master schedule for a loop.
iii. Common department preps would be more beneficial, especially since teams are not 100% true. Team Inspire only has 59 students who have all four core teachers on their team.
iv. With this model, Language B and electives would have the freedom to float to team meetings as needed.
3) Open and transparent communication
a. New hires (4 new teachers).
i. Brought in to meet QEIA sizes. Capped 8th 26 to 1. When I want to hire I want the best and the brightest (Dr. Garcia). One was hired for language A and humanities, but his previous site enticed him back. We lost him, but earned someone else. HR is reorganizing, but I have to maneuver through them. In the future I will certainly inform the department chair if that happens again.
4) School-wide homework policy
a. Allison-Put the policy on the website by grade level or subject. Make homework percentages go up incrementally each year, like community and service hours do (10, 15, 20). The older the student the more responsibilities they have.
b. Syllabi are being rewritten for IB.
c. A very touchy philosophical subject for teachers. More realistic is perhaps make it a policy for teachers to send emails out to the department head to let them know what’s going on.
d. Homework club teachers should know what’s on the planner.
e. Mr. Olmstead recognizes that each teacher is different.
f. Mrs. Klug’s concern is more that it’s purposeful homework and not so much busy work.
g. Croom-My fear is that homework is ramped up per grade. More homework will make it more difficult for students. There is a political pressure against homework so students don’t fail because of it.
h. Teachers clarified that, yes, there is in fact homework assigned on Fridays.
i. Research tells that the more children read voluntarily grades go up. If there is no homework then reading should be assigned. At least 20 minutes a day is recommendable. Some homework is only to finish what wasn’t finished. If students are efficient they may not have an actual homework assignment.
j. If you want to have kids do their work: The kids who really need to do it aren’t doing it. Other students are “just in school”. There is no discipline. They show up late. We have to call home. It’s pulling teeth. How do you make students do their work? The idea is to make them do their work. How do we achieve that?
k. Do you mean communicating what the homework is? It’s vague (Marushige). Maybe planners can be used as exit slips. If teachers commit to that it can work. Use the planners. Another alternative: We do have a system built into the website, but it requires teachers to acquire a new routine.
l. Emma-SGT to report to their departments the following: 100% compliance with planner usage. Maybe sign entries and students write homework in pen so they can’t erase. Also, set up communication via email. Homework club teachers reach out to teachers and vice versa what student expectations are for homework either daily, twice a week, or weekly, just so homework club teachers know what students should be doing.
m. Spaniol: Teachers must sign planners before students are able to come into library and use computers.
5) Round Table:
a. Gear Up-Leadership team: Required for a grant. Gear-up. Biobridge meets on Friday. SCC ambassador for outreach. Tutors from UCSD. Placement of counselor. Trip to tour SDSU. Biology lab tour. Career fair on 12/3. PIQUE also here. NOTE: We have a budget allocation to help pay for substitute teachers. We can use that for release time for planning. Incentives are less because of budget restraints. It is allowable expenditure for professional development. CLMS conference, for example.
b. Croom: We might want to consider meeting when all teachers could be available (some teachers are tied up).
c. 6th grade: We started our archaeological dig. Each team is spending a day digging out artifacts. 12 teachers, 6 teams. First Fun Friday (125 kids). All A,B,C, no referrals. Camp Week 1 of 2 is next week (Camp Palomar). 2nd group goes on MLK week. 2 new members on the team.
d. Marushige: Would like to offer food (cupcakes, cookies, sandwiches).
e. Harvey: P.E. jump rope world record.
f. Dr. Garcia: Magnets fair. Recruit students. Recital Hall 10-3 pm. Students must wear uniforms.
g. ASB: Thanks for letting us sit in.
h. Mr. Cortes: Field has been in Prop S master plan. Outside the garden floods. The slope needs to be raised (irrigation issue). The money is still there, but how does Muirlands get it done in 3 years. It will be done, but there’s no budget to bring the dirt trucks to make it level. Could Prop S pay for the dirt? Since the money is set aside by the city, can Prop S pay for it? Can we make it a priority? The new plan is to make it an oval. It’s the slope (the hold-up). Rick Engineering said that 90% design has been done (of that field). I want a number. Muirlands raised this and did it in 3 years. We haven’t done it in 10 years. It’s the embedded demographics.
i. Lewis: Special Ed: Co–teaching at all grade levels and almost all subjects. I will present a model in January. I will send out some sort of presurvey to get input to assist in design. Our caseloads have increased plus budget cuts. Go back to your departments to get our provided feedbacks on students.
j. Abts: SDEA union meeting: Putting together special-Ed task force. Anyone interested in going you are more than welcome. The union really wants to gather information for the district.
k. Spaniol: Library going well. Have our new assistant. Considering closing for a complete inventory. Books are missing. System says they’re checked in, but they’re not. We need books. Student: Other than new books donated by students this school library is good but outdated. Spaniol: I need $15,000 worth of library bound books. I hope to have a new grand opening with clear-cut procedures for students. Shankar: My neighbors can donate books.
l. Allison-We created 3 more black belts (Tae Kwon Do). Cheerleaders will be at Aztecs this weekend during halftime. Next week girls volleyball playoffs. Almost ready to send invitations for junior theater play Wednesday, December 16 (Spam-a-lot). 7:00 pm that night. December 17 at 6:00 pm Winter concert.
m. Emma Ehrlich motioned to approve 5/26/09 minutes. Motion approved by Mary Lewis.
Parking Lot:**
• (Fran) – Electives and Language B to be made compliant with IB
International Baccalaureate Magnet
Site Governance Team
November 10, 2009
Present: Debbie Christensen, Bobbe Abts, Matt Harvey, Carmen Garcia, Mindy Powers, Kavi Shankar, Lucinda Bernadino, Guillermo Moran, Nelson Cortes, Mary Lewis, Vicky Alt Klug, Fran Donovan, Arlene Spaniol, Allison Brown, Ryan Elliott, Dina Weiss, Greg Olmstead, Christopher Croom, Emma Ehrlich, Ken Marushige
Not In Attendance: Jennifer Jay, Shakerra Davis, Daniza Oviedo, Rafeal O’Campo, Kristy Beauchamp, Birk Zeunges
The meeting was called to order @ 2:15 pm.
1) Horizontal/Vertical Planning
a. IB visit:
i. 3 days of planning for disciplines to work together as a group.
ii. Science planned on Sunday. 6th grade language A met on Monday. Humanities met today. 7th & 8th Language B to meet Thursday.
iii. Math has to meet also.
iv. Ken is Working on a plan for P.E., technology, math, and 6th grade humanities to meet.
v. English/Language Arts is now called Language A. World Languages are now Language B.
vi. Working on flexibility for a release date or have meetings on off hours (weekends).
vii. Planning days should be built in to the schedule; heavy during Spring and check-up during the fall. Also release days or a combination thereof. Updating uniplans, curriculum, etc. We must have those protocols in place to maintain the IB program.
viii. Language A should meet before each unit to align IB with curriculum.
ix. Ken-What’s being done now: All files downloaded from district website, documents, templates, etc., Marishuge was able to post to website for staff access. Not publicly available, but good to have it on the website. Google Docs or Wikis would be nice. We could meet for all resources and have it all in one place for staff to assemble all resources.
x. What if there are questions? Talk to those who you work closely with. If you can’t figure it out, perhaps we can formalize a chain of command. All departments have an email group. We’re helping with the nuances by posting docs.
xi. Units are public access. Would we be opposed to share the IB units with parents? They are password protected. The interface is difficult. The reason they are protected is because they have quizzes and tests in them. They could be summarized. What’s currently there are not the everyday details. Marushige only downloaded the overviews. Maybe those could be made available.
xii. Sampling of projects could be made available for parents.
2) Master Schedule for 2010-2011
a. 6 periods with no food is a long minimum day.
i. Informal survey by Dr. Garcia. Most said they were ok, except those who had no breakfast. We wanted to reach 85% reduced, but food services might make an exception. Breakfast in the classroom is a possibility. What about a snack? Maybe we can extend the day. A breakfast bar as during testing? Many students don’t have time for breakfast. Would this be for everyday or only minimum days? ASB could survey the students. What about encouraging breakfast eating? Some kids just don’t eat breakfast. Teenagers are on a different schedule sometimes.
ii. If we are granted the 3% grace by food services that means all kids could ear for free (no codes necessary). Encouraging breakfast might be through making it fast and convenient. How about bringing breakfast to the first period classes?
iii. One school added extra 5 minutes for nutrition. We can’t shave 2 minutes off periods.
iv. Cut 2 minutes to obtain a 10-minute passing period for a nutrition period. The logistics is a nightmare.
v. Student’s opinion: Mr. Lockwood’s class, we don’t get through the lesson on minimum days. Cutting more time would make it harder.
vi. 6th graders are used to eating lunch at 10:40 am. It’s not about the morning. Around 11:00 am take them on a break. Those who bring their snack can go out to eat. It’s not breakfast in the classroom. No wiping tables. Just go outside to have a snack.
vii. Possibly leave it up to the teachers to allow a “snack time” later on in the day…making it a more informal process.
viii. Is it possible to distribute food in the morning and let them eat it at any point during the day? I think the problem is that kids are hungry during the day. It’s not so much the morning, but later in the day. Give them the food and the choice to eat it whenever they want.
b. 20 minutes advisory: We really need to push the IB stuff. We are all expected to teach IB concepts. If we had a 20 minute advisory only on Tuesdays we could cut down to 42 minutes per period. We could do the breakfast during the advisory. This would provide a place to do this.
i. We can’t have world language if this is cut. We either decide to petition the board for a different language program. We just can’t do it as it is now. The time isn’t enough. We are a high school credit program. What is their responsibility is to make up work for the short times we have (students). Every year the high school calls to complain about how we give language credits. Cutting instructional minutes is too much.
c. Teacher Prep (Master Schedule for Next Year)
i. A large concern of the IB panel was that we do not have department prep times imbedded into our schedule. Suggestion: Team humanities & language A by grade level and math & science by grade level for a weekly prep. Then have a team meeting (for all four core subjects) in lieu of one of the 1:30 mini-meetings each month.
ii. There are concerns with multiple schedule changes and how this looks for our school – the influx of 100 students this year through our already solidified master schedule for a loop.
iii. Common department preps would be more beneficial, especially since teams are not 100% true. Team Inspire only has 59 students who have all four core teachers on their team.
iv. With this model, Language B and electives would have the freedom to float to team meetings as needed.
3) Open and transparent communication
a. New hires (4 new teachers).
i. Brought in to meet QEIA sizes. Capped 8th 26 to 1. When I want to hire I want the best and the brightest (Dr. Garcia). One was hired for language A and humanities, but his previous site enticed him back. We lost him, but earned someone else. HR is reorganizing, but I have to maneuver through them. In the future I will certainly inform the department chair if that happens again.
4) School-wide homework policy
a. Allison-Put the policy on the website by grade level or subject. Make homework percentages go up incrementally each year, like community and service hours do (10, 15, 20). The older the student the more responsibilities they have.
b. Syllabi are being rewritten for IB.
c. A very touchy philosophical subject for teachers. More realistic is perhaps make it a policy for teachers to send emails out to the department head to let them know what’s going on.
d. Homework club teachers should know what’s on the planner.
e. Mr. Olmstead recognizes that each teacher is different.
f. Mrs. Klug’s concern is more that it’s purposeful homework and not so much busy work.
g. Croom-My fear is that homework is ramped up per grade. More homework will make it more difficult for students. There is a political pressure against homework so students don’t fail because of it.
h. Teachers clarified that, yes, there is in fact homework assigned on Fridays.
i. Research tells that the more children read voluntarily grades go up. If there is no homework then reading should be assigned. At least 20 minutes a day is recommendable. Some homework is only to finish what wasn’t finished. If students are efficient they may not have an actual homework assignment.
j. If you want to have kids do their work: The kids who really need to do it aren’t doing it. Other students are “just in school”. There is no discipline. They show up late. We have to call home. It’s pulling teeth. How do you make students do their work? The idea is to make them do their work. How do we achieve that?
k. Do you mean communicating what the homework is? It’s vague (Marushige). Maybe planners can be used as exit slips. If teachers commit to that it can work. Use the planners. Another alternative: We do have a system built into the website, but it requires teachers to acquire a new routine.
l. Emma-SGT to report to their departments the following: 100% compliance with planner usage. Maybe sign entries and students write homework in pen so they can’t erase. Also, set up communication via email. Homework club teachers reach out to teachers and vice versa what student expectations are for homework either daily, twice a week, or weekly, just so homework club teachers know what students should be doing.
m. Spaniol: Teachers must sign planners before students are able to come into library and use computers.
5) Round Table:
a. Gear Up-Leadership team: Required for a grant. Gear-up. Biobridge meets on Friday. SCC ambassador for outreach. Tutors from UCSD. Placement of counselor. Trip to tour SDSU. Biology lab tour. Career fair on 12/3. PIQUE also here. NOTE: We have a budget allocation to help pay for substitute teachers. We can use that for release time for planning. Incentives are less because of budget restraints. It is allowable expenditure for professional development. CLMS conference, for example.
b. Croom: We might want to consider meeting when all teachers could be available (some teachers are tied up).
c. 6th grade: We started our archaeological dig. Each team is spending a day digging out artifacts. 12 teachers, 6 teams. First Fun Friday (125 kids). All A,B,C, no referrals. Camp Week 1 of 2 is next week (Camp Palomar). 2nd group goes on MLK week. 2 new members on the team.
d. Marushige: Would like to offer food (cupcakes, cookies, sandwiches).
e. Harvey: P.E. jump rope world record.
f. Dr. Garcia: Magnets fair. Recruit students. Recital Hall 10-3 pm. Students must wear uniforms.
g. ASB: Thanks for letting us sit in.
h. Mr. Cortes: Field has been in Prop S master plan. Outside the garden floods. The slope needs to be raised (irrigation issue). The money is still there, but how does Muirlands get it done in 3 years. It will be done, but there’s no budget to bring the dirt trucks to make it level. Could Prop S pay for the dirt? Since the money is set aside by the city, can Prop S pay for it? Can we make it a priority? The new plan is to make it an oval. It’s the slope (the hold-up). Rick Engineering said that 90% design has been done (of that field). I want a number. Muirlands raised this and did it in 3 years. We haven’t done it in 10 years. It’s the embedded demographics.
i. Lewis: Special Ed: Co–teaching at all grade levels and almost all subjects. I will present a model in January. I will send out some sort of presurvey to get input to assist in design. Our caseloads have increased plus budget cuts. Go back to your departments to get our provided feedbacks on students.
j. Abts: SDEA union meeting: Putting together special-Ed task force. Anyone interested in going you are more than welcome. The union really wants to gather information for the district.
k. Spaniol: Library going well. Have our new assistant. Considering closing for a complete inventory. Books are missing. System says they’re checked in, but they’re not. We need books. Student: Other than new books donated by students this school library is good but outdated. Spaniol: I need $15,000 worth of library bound books. I hope to have a new grand opening with clear-cut procedures for students. Shankar: My neighbors can donate books.
l. Allison-We created 3 more black belts (Tae Kwon Do). Cheerleaders will be at Aztecs this weekend during halftime. Next week girls volleyball playoffs. Almost ready to send invitations for junior theater play Wednesday, December 16 (Spam-a-lot). 7:00 pm that night. December 17 at 6:00 pm Winter concert.
m. Emma Ehrlich motioned to approve 5/26/09 minutes. Motion approved by Mary Lewis.
Parking Lot:**
• (Fran) – Electives and Language B to be made compliant with IB
Meeting adjourned at 3:50 pm.